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Friday, October 1, 2010

Nostalgia Mania Part 1: Starting Out In Photography

I'm been going through my old photos lately, and comparing the earlier shots I took and the more recent ones, there are obvious inevitable differences! I found it interesting to analyze my learning curve in photography, so I thought I would share some of it with whoever wants to read it. Who knows, I may make sense to some people.

When I decided that I wanted to started taking photographs not too long ago, I immediately fell-in with a Nikon L100. Blame it on a camera fair at my office. I thought that it would be perfect since it was *better* (what appeared to me at least) than a Point & Shoot, but not as complicated as a full-fledged DSLR. Here's a piece of advice for you: Never listen to the sales person selling you the camera until and unless you've done your research first. No sales man will ever tell you you're wasting money on something you don't need.  Here's what the L100 looks like (picture taken off the internet):


Vital Stats for the Nikon L100 in brief

Megapixels: 10.1 megapixels
Memory: SD/SDHC
Zoom: 15x Optical
Manual Controls: No
Aperture: f/3.5 - 5.4
Min & Max Shutter Speed: 8 secs & 1/2000 secs respectively
LCD: 3 inches
LCD Dots: 230,000
Batteries: 4 AA batteries

I took a good number of shots with this camera. In fact, everywhere I went, the cam was sure to go (Haha). Believe it or not, a lot of my learning was with the L100. Even though it did not have manual controls, I studied my photos over and over again, until I understood what was wrong with them.

Here are some sample shots from the L100. As you can see in the photos, I've been shooting without the in-built flash on, resulting in very low shutter speeds (= shaky shots). Even the White Balance setting has gone loopy. I can't remember how much of it was my fault or the camera's.


Shot of a friend's fish tank. At the time I was trying to get the camera to shoot with a higher shutter
speed - to 'freeze' the fishy-wishy.


My interest in the abstract shows itself. More similar shots will be taken in the times to come.


My early eye for perspective. Taken on the road, on the way to Johor Bahru.


The Zone - a Company appointed hotel I was staying in during a Company trip to JB. Here, failing to use the flash, the orange colour of the lamps are vibrant but the camera is too shaky to produce any picture of worth.
   

Another shot of the inside of The Zone. My room is somewhere on the right of the picture, not far from where I took this shot.
  

Car Wash for Charity effort at JUSCO Taman Maluri Shopping Centre - I was on the staircase near the roof for this shot.
 

Still on the roof, the sight of the Petronas Twin Towers was nice, against a background of.... haze.



My dear Mom's birthday dinner organized by Aunt Eleanor Lee at Eyuzu, Japanese Restaurant at Eastin Hotel, sometime late March 2009. Lovely buffet, but terrible lighting. My Mom is on the right, Aunt Lina is on the left. Something's wrong with the White Balance here.



My brother Desmond strikes a pose.



If memory serves me correctly, this would be the sashimi counter at Eyuzu.



The Lees'and the Kees'. The shot is terribly lacking in light, especially in the shaded areas. This is where Canon's Highlight Tone Priority would be absolutely handy. Also, the ISO didn't really bump itself up high enough.

 

The Band Formerly Known As 'The Theory Of Change'. Trying my hand at aperture control with a FULLY AUTOMATIC camera. Once again, no flash in low-light conditions. What do you think? It's a studio.



Daniel, our drummer, who decided to take up my Epiphone AlleyKat to dish out some tunes. I thought I had enough light on this but it's still blurry.



A shot of my with my Baby AlleyKat. Would be nicer if it was sharp though. But like I said, this was a consistent problem in low light without flash.



Calvin banging it hard and fast. Once again, shutter speed is toooo slow. At the time I thought this was a pretty decent artistic shot.

Although the L100 had Optical Zoom (15x - about 400+ mm) it did not have manual controls. It's a typical Nikon P&S but the mini-DSLR style still made it difficult to just slip into your pocket. I guess at the time I was more taken in with the appearance of the camera!

For those of you who like statistics:
Vital Stats for October: 1 post 15 pics 
Vital Stats So Far: 18 posts 766 pics

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